title: A belief in the soul may contribute to the stress experienced in the dissecting room.
abstract: The aim of this research was to explore whether medical students believe in a soul and how this may affect their dissecting experience. Three questionnaires were delivered electronically to the 2011 cohort of second-year medical students over a 2-year period. At the University of Otago, students enter medicine via three categories: Health Sciences First Year (following 1 year of university); postgraduate (following a Bachelors or higher degree); and 'other' category entry (Allied Health Professional or 3 years after a Bachelors degree). The entry category, age, ethnicity and gender of the students were collected; 51.6% of the students believed in the concept of a soul. On a scale of 1-5, students ranked the importance of religion/spirituality as 2.69. Those who believed in a soul were more likely to have a religious/spiritual component to their life and be males or 'other' category entrants. However, there were many students who believed in the soul who did not have a religious/spiritual association, suggesting that this belief extends beyond religion. Those who believed in a soul had significantly higher anticipatory stress and experienced higher levels of stress during dissection. A higher proportion of students in the 'other' category entrants believed in the concept of the soul and also had significantly higher levels of stress during dissection. Our data suggest that a belief in a soul may affect students' experiences in dissecting. Incorporating the teaching of humanities with anatomy may help medical students as they assimilate both the biomedical and philosophical aspects of dissection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Otago School of Medical Sciences, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Martyn
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barrett
authors.forename: Helen D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Nicholson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001293:Attitude to Death; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004210:Dissection / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology*; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D029181:Spirituality; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: dissection; entry category; medical students; soul; spirituality